BBQ Chips

It is one o´clock in the morning and the night is mild, even though it rained the entire day. With my legs stretched wide before me, I am sitting on the stairs of the 7/11 supermarket and have a bag of extra spicy BBQ chips. They taste so unhealthy, so damn salty and are full of flavour enhancers, glutamate and other chemical stuff – but I enjoy it. Even if it is an early Monday morning, there are still a lot people around and besides the chips I was able to get some fried rice with pork and sweet, Chinese dumplings.

The noisy sound of hundreds of cars on the highway has gone and has been replaced by the concert of a thousand-frog-choir and a million-cricket-orchestra playing the background music. I smile – I may pass this 7/11 every day and could sit here whenever I want to, but this moment feels special. It is one of these moments when I realize that I made it to Thailand to live my dream; and not just for a few weeks. It is when I realize that the life I live here is the best I can imagine: Full of opportunities, without any duties and as much training sessions as I want to.

It is one of these moments you will remember for a long time. It is just this picture of me sitting there with a friend, watching the people, enjoying my massively unhealthy cheat-meal and being absolutely content and happy. And for sure, I will not have a bad conscience for committing that BBQ-sin. Because I earned it.

Today I won another Muay Thai fight and got a lot of experience out of it. My corner told me, or let´s say they basically forbid me, to rely on my boxing. I had to concentrate on my Muay Thai skills, trying to clinch and knee a lot instead of taking advantage of the lacking boxing skills of many Thai fighters. Back in Germany I fought under K-1 rules (which do not allow clinching and elbows) and MMA, but the clinch in MMA is completely different to the one in Thaiboxing.

Well taped hands - ´If you did this in the US, you´d go to jail, man!´

So my corner told me not to do what I feel confident in but to concentrate on the part of the game I have hardly experienced yet and I would say I am not that good at. Furthermore, my opponent was a Thai, so he knows how clinching works – fighting the shark in the ocean. This made me worried a bit when climbing over the ropes but I accepted the challenge.

The opponent was tougher than the last one but I followed the instructions of my corner (´Don´t let him kick you! Kick first!´) and, instead of avoiding the clinch as usual, getting into it. I was far from controlling him easily, getting dominant positions or breaking his balance, but I was able to shot many knees to the ribs. Even if they were not the hardest ones... many lighter ones start to hurt after a while too.

But what I am really proud of is that I landed a couple of elbows – before I came to Team Quest I barely trained them because they are forbidden in the most German MMA events. I hit him with short right elbows in the clinch to the forehead and finally made him go down with a bigger one to the temple in the third round.

I am glad that my corner gave me the advice to go without my boxing and play the game of traditional Muay Thai. Three rounds of good clinching experience are worth a lot because I think I will soon face opponents that will not be impressed by my boxing and force me to clinch with them... might be better to have some skills then...

I am not really hurt, so I will look forward to fight again soon!

One of these mornings

I am running through the jungle, jumping over old, fallen trees and green plants I have not seen before. My feet find their way through the brushwood, avoiding puddles, holes and stumbling blocks like I have trained this for years. The midday sun is slightly shivering through the roof of leaves – outside of the forest it may be hot, but here there is a pleasant cool. I feel free and deeply relaxed, running without any effort and feeling like I could do that forever.

An annoying and loud beeping, one of those you would never hear in a beautiful and silent environment, jolts me out of my dreams. I turn around – outside it is dawning but still dark and the sky is overcast. Then I reach for my mobile phone, turn off the terrible alarm (the software developer who gave the ringtone the name "good morning" must be a cynic) and check the time: 6 a.m.

The training starts in one hour and I reach under my bed for the box with the BCAA´s. Still lying in my bed I swallow two capsules with some water. Already exhausted I place my head back on the pillow. Standing up now and going to the Team Quest gym and train for two hours? Running, pad work, bag work. When I stretch my body carefully it does not feel like it is ready for a workout. My neck is aching from the clinching classes the day before and bruises and other small injuries hurt.

I hide in my sleeping bag, hoping that a wonder will make the time stop so I can get more sleep. 10 minutes later the second alarm reminds me, as unpleasantly and ruthlessly as before, that no miracle occurred. Morose I work myself out of the comfortable bed and scuff into the bathroom. Today the tiles seem to be colder than on other days and my muscles stiffer. Today is one of these days. I train two times a day since months without a considerable break – even if I love what I do, today I am barely motivated to train.

It is early and it is not as warm as it should be (means wearing two tank-tops is necessary while riding my bicycle to the gym. Nothing compared to the German weather but already too cold for me) and my body is aching. Again, going for a run; again, doing pad rounds; again, doing bagwork; again, doing sparring; and again, doing dozens of push-ups. There is nothing I would like to do more than just go back to dreamland.

But somehow I manage to pack my backpack, to prepare my after workout shake and have some bananas for breakfast. If you would ask me, why I do this, right after I stepped out of my door, I could not answer you. Is it because I got used to the routine? Is it because I just do not know what else to do?

training preparations

It is one of these – I don´t want to mornings. Finally I end up in the gym, kicking the pads, the bags and my training partners. And I did not really enjoy it. But somehow I still did it.
If you train you know these kinds of mornings. These types of mornings when you do something you do not have to do. You do not like these mornings. A strange situation.

Why do we do this? I want to think about this in a whole entire post, next time.

- This post is from mid of this week, I just did not have time to bring it up. So I will continues this story after the next post, because I will have to wirte about my fight tonight first ;) -

The gameplan

"He will try to catch your left middle kick! Be careful with these and prepare him with feints, whenever you attempt to kick him!"

- "What about high kicks?" I ask Dylan, the MMA coach of Team Quest Chiang Mai.
"No problem. As long as it´s part of a combination or you trick him before."
- "Ok." I shake out my arms and try to relax my fingers – my hands are already wrapped and I can barely move my fingers. "Anything else?" I look at Dylan with a questioning look in my eyes. Ping, one of the Muay Thai trainers, joins the conversation: "No waiting tonight! Put pressure on him from the first minute! Since his condition isn’t good, rush at him.” I nod.

Being careful with the kicks – ok; this was my plan anyways since I hurt my foot in the last fight after I kicked right into the elbows of my opponent. Feints – ok. We have done that in training. If that is all, I am prepared for the fight.
"Oh!" Dylan adds, "And boxing of course. You should definitely throw some nice combinations. He may have problems with that." That is what I wanted to hear. Because of a knee injury I mainly focused on boxing during the preparation for this fight; so this fits my game plan quite well.

Again I get the pre-fight Thai-oil massage on the concrete floor of Loikroh Stadium and again Ping puts vaseline on my face. Again I wear the Mongkhon and again I dance my Wai Kru. But I feel great – my last fight was just six weeks ago, but it felt like ages. I really wanted to fight again. We face each other in the middle of the ring, bump our gloves and the fight starts.

I do what my corner told me: Put pressure on him. Even if I am not rushing forward, I am still going forward. After the first combination of punches I realize that boxing is definitely not his strength. He goes backwards, barely attempting to counterstrike my punches. We clinch and suddenly he stands right in the corner. There I go forward with a four punch combination and the uppercut hits him right on the jar – he collapses.

I walk back to the white corner, not sure if I really knocked him out or not. Only as the referee turns around do I realize that I did. He raises my hand. When I leave the ring I feel the impact of the punch on my right knuckle. That may have not been the most exciting fight or a fight I could gain a lot of experience from, but it is nice to earn my first real knockout – this felt a lot different than when I won my first fight.

My next fight is already scheduled for this Sunday. When I asked Kru Ni if he can work something out with the promoter so I get a stronger opponent, he grinned at me: "Ok, no problem! Up to you! But don´t cry if you lose!"

I won´t. I promise.

Here is a video of the fight - enjoy!

Thoughts before a fight

I open the door, put my keys on the cupboard and throw my backpack on the small chair in front of the make-up table. Then I connect my new camera with the laptop since I had taken some pictures for the blog when I was in the city and have to upload them now. While the device does its work, I have time to empty my backpack: New toothbrush, some postcards and my Thai language books. I put everything into place and sit down on my bed.

I stare on the opposite wall and take a deep breath: Thai classes are done for today, I bought everything I needed and had lunch. Everything I had to do is done, now it is time to relax in order for me to be focused and recovered for tonight – it is, after all, fight day. With my headphones on, listening to the rhythmically, fast sounds of electronic music, I look back on the preparation for this fight. I trained as much as possible, I did not skip one session, I did not quit with the excuse that I was hurt. There is nothing I could have done more - no excuses, no blame.

All the hard work is done - time to watch the others train

I am happy that I can fight again tonight and I am also already excited to step into the ring, to face my opponent, to stare each other down, both with a slight grin on the face. Fighting is such an awesome experience; it is unique! I have done rollercoasters, freefall towers, paintball and bungie jumping – but nothing is comparable to the feeling one gets when facing another man one on one in a fight. It is a huge adrenaline kick when you jump from the top of a tower, hoping that the rope tied to your legs will save your life, but there is a difference: You do not have any control over what happens. The only thing you have to do is to convince yourself to jump and then enjoy the rush of hormones and chemical messengers in your blood.

But fighting is different: You decide what happens! You do not only decide to get in there, but you make the decision not to quit again and again. With every punch that lands square on your nose, with every knee to the stomach that takes away your breath, with every minute the fight lasts longer and you feel like there is no more power left in your body and with every second your opponent is pounding the shit out of you, you have to make that decision again: Fight or flight?

You could quit, you could simply tap, it is not a fight for your life since it is something you do voluntarily. But you do not. You accept the pain, you take the punches and you fight back. For weeks and months you stood up every morning with aching muscles, trained twice a day, got to bed early, followed a strict diet and got hurt and dominated in training.

And then you climb over the ropes, knowing that you worked hours and hours and hours and now you will have only a couple of rounds to realize the benefits. So much work and now you want to quit? It is not worth it. The way was too long to get here. You did not quit when you were at the gym, then you will not quit when you are inside the ring.

Sometimes, on the bad days, I ask myself: Why do you do this Felix? Is it worth it? All this pain, all this exhaustion, all the sweat, all these tasty things you cannot eat, all the nights you do not spend on a dancefloor or drinking in a bar with your friends because you have to get up early the next morning for training? Is it worth it?

And then I touch gloves with my opponent, I hear the cheering crowd, feel the raw canvas under my feet and start to trade punches with my opponent. Then I know that it is worth it. Then I feel how much I love this sport and how much I enjoy it to fight. It is not even so much about winning; that is just the cherry on the top of the cake. For me, fighting is the ultimate challenge. When I fight, I cannot hide. I show all the people my skills – everyone can judge me. When there is a guy, trying to knock you out there are no excuses.

And there is no reason to be afraid of stepping in the ring: Nothing can happen to you that is worse than what happens to you in the gym. The everyday grind and what your teammates do to you while sparring is much harder than fighting.

But fighting is more fun.

Fighting is pure awesomeness.

To be on a budget - part V

After giving you a general overview over your expenses while you stay in Thailand in the last episode, I want to start getting into details. How to save money every day? I don´t need to tell you that it´s advisable to buy the no name cornflakes instead of the more expensive Kellogg’s if you are on a budget. But I want to try to give Thailand specific tip; things that I had to find out first and things I wasn´t used to from home.

The ultimate advice to save money

This is a point that needs some time to be accomplished. But it´s totally worth it to invest the time and work because it comes with many other benefits AND you save a few bucks: Learn the Thai language! Often you are charged more because you are a tourist – not always but quite often. Make the prices drop just through being able to have short conversations. It works best with Taxi drivers, but also the prices for fruits dropped in my neighbourhood once I spoke a bit Thai.
Furthermore there are often different prices for farang and locals at touristattractions. It is often enough to be able to tell them that you live (and work) here to pay the regular price – which can make you save a few hundred baht easily.

Besides the money aspect don´t forget all the benefits you have when you speak the language: It´s a completely different experience in everyday life!

Taxis

There are different kinds of Taxis. The most Thailand typical ones are Tuk Tuk´s, which are small auto rickshaws. Even if they are not the cheapest way to get somewhere, they are definitely the most fun way. At least once you should have enjoyed the ride in one of these when you visit Thailand. To make it cheaper, you have to bargain with the driver – they are tough negotiating partner but if they don´t want to lower the price to an acceptable level you can still simply leave. Most of the time, they´ll prefer taking you for less rather than receiving nothing. Otherwise you can just try your luck with one of the hundreds of other drivers.

Then there are the "regular" Taxis, comparable to western ones. They have a taximeter and a basic price you pay additionally to the driven distance – in Bangkok the basic price is 35 Baht. You can really go everywhere quite cheap, for a 30 minutes ride you may pay approximately 100 Baht. Be aware! Many taxi drivers try to give you a fixed drive before which is always much higher than the taximeter one would be. Insist on that the driver activates the meter and if he doesn´t want to do that, simply tell him to stop and leave. When I did this, another driver already stopped behind us. They know this "game" too.

In Chiang Mai you have red pickup trucks, which are shared taxis. They are cheaper than anything else most of the time. It may take a bit longer to get to your destination because they pick up and drop off other guests too. You have to agree with them about the price before and if you speak Thai you get the “non-tourist” price most of the time.

These were the first "real life" hints, more will follow soon!

The Visa Run

I jog around the corner and already see the waiting silver van – I check the time: It is 06:50 a.m. I am right on time and the van of the tourist company is earlier than me. Surprisingly, I already expected some waiting time. The driver waves at me: "Mr.Felix?" - "Krub!" I answer (this is the Thai way to say yes). He opens the sliding door of the small van and I find a seat in the first row behind the driver. How wise this decision was, I will realize later.

Approximately one hour later, after picking up eight others, we are on our way up north. Unfortunately we are not going to have a vacation – we are taking a four hours ride. Then get off the bus, walk a few hundred meters, turn around and walk back, do some paperwork, get back on the bus and head back to Chiang Mai. What sounds a bit confusing is what we have to do to keep our visas. If you stay longterm in Thailand, you have to leave the country, depending on what kind of visa you have, at least every three months. "To leave" means to get a stamp and turn around to enter again with another stamp. Do not ask me who invented this law and why!

The landscape is hilly, the streets are winding and the driving style is typical Thai: The road markings are more a suggestion where you could drive if you want to. Most of the people do not care... to be honest, literally they do not give a #%?&. Driving through bends in the road through the oncoming traffic? No problem. Passing before and IN bends of the road? No problem. Attempting to pass over a long row of cars with a minivan before a hump? Well, most of the time not successful, but the attempt – no problem.

I think I have to thank this monk who took care of us during the ride – he kept watch over us from the top of the dashboard.

Actually it was not that bad nor was I in fear of my life (maybe sometimes). But if you are sensitive with rapid car rides, you should definitely get a place in the front row.

While I could enjoy the landscape during the ride, the visa run is a slightly annoying procedure. First waiting in a queue then showing the officers at the immigration office my passport and the departure card (You get this one when you arrive in Thailand, it is important to keep it!). And here it is: The stamp that proves that I left Thailand. I am happy that I have the stamps necessary and just go to the next line to re-enter Thailand again. After waiting a while they tell me that I have to enter Myanmar first to get some more stamps.

Okay - I cross the bridge, enter a small, stuffy room with a few plastic chairs and an old table. A few soldiers are sitting around and laugh and chat. Behind the table sits a corpulent officer in a way too tight uniform. I greet him smiling - "Passport" he grunts. I give him what he asked for – "Sho pin?" he mumbles. While I am still trying to figure out if this was supposed to be Thai, English or even Burmes, he repeats it even more unclear but louder in the same effortless mumbling voice. Anyways, it helps. He asks if I want to go shopping on the market on the other side of the border. I answer no and he presses two stamps on my passport "500 Baht!" - two expensive stamps but at least I get them easily.

Then I walk back to the Thai immigration office and fill in another pair of arrival and departure card. A big Sign says in red "Death sentence for drug smugglers" – even if it is very unlikely that anyone put anything in my bag, I still check it. I do not want to end up being executed (and the Thai government is serious about drugs, no matter where you are from). When I open it everything looks fine, I take a closer look and spot something: A plastic cup filled with white powder. In my backpack? First I am confused, then I am stunned and then I am alarmed, realizing what happened: I forgot to have my protein shake. Damn it. Have to do that before we leave.

I get all the stamps I need and am allowed to stay in Thailand for another three months. Awesome. If you know what to do and the lines are not too long, the procedure can be easy.

Finally I even get a little bit of Christmas feeling while buying some roasted chestnuts. You only get them on the Christmas Markets in Germany – and they are totally overprized. I really recommend getting them; they definitely make the ride back to Chiang Mai more interesting.

In shape

After being able to do boxing only for more than two weeks due to injuring my knee during a sparring session, I was able to start doing Muay Thai in the beginning of this week. Even though the knee still feels stiff sometimes when I do not move it for an hour or so, I can throw kicks again. It is amazing how fast the body adapts to new circumstances – in good and in bad ways.

Monday – I carefully started to throw knees only on Saturday, so now it is time to see if I can kick. Basically I have to because my next fight is already scheduled for Sunday, the 1^st of December. I did not fight in November even though I am aiming to fight at least once a month while I am here. However, it would not have been a good idea to step into the ring hurt.

Pai holds the pads: "Ready?". I focus, turn my hips in to create power and kick as hard as I can. The shin hits the pads and there is no weird feeling in my knee; no pain, no aching. I shake the leg to see if I feel something abnormal. Nothing. We go on and after two rounds I am sure that my knee has healed and is in good enough condition for this. But something else has changed: I am out of breath. Just after two rounds. The pace is high but I still should not feel the way I am feeling right now. It reminds me of my first rounds on the pads after I arrived in September. I do not feel as bad but I am still kind of dizzy and exhausted.

Two days and four pad rounds later: As fast as the body seems to ´forget´ how to do a certain movement in high repetition effectively is as fast it seems to remember how to do the movements right. Okay, my calves are aching from the hundreds of kicks done in the last days but my stamina has returned after working kicks on the pads. The pace is even higher than ever before. Additionally Pai, who is supposed to fight on Sunday, while my fight has been rescheduled for the 4^th of December, and I are doing extra pad rounds and sprints after training.

This combination basically killed me at the arrival at Team Quest, but, as I suspected, it is just part of the ´special attention´ you get when you are preparing for a fight. And I am doing well.

My legs know how to kick again, my boxing has really improved in the last weeks and the conditioning did its work too. Finally I will step in the ring again and I am hungry – it feels as if my last fight was decades ago.

I´m motivated! Can´t wait until Wednesday!